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Iowa State will honor history-making 2000 team during Saturday's game against South Dakota
About 180 people in total, including family and close friends, will be back in Ames this weekend
Rob Gray
Aug. 28, 2025 6:15 pm
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AMES — One man stood in the way of Iowa State head coach Dan McCarney and the storied 2000 Cyclones’ quest to notch the program’s first bowl win against Pittsburgh: Iron Mike Tyson.
Sort of. Not really. But it’s a fun story, naturally, since it came from McCarney — so let him tell it.
“We’re just (in) the hallway (at the Buttes resort in Phoenix) and somebody said there was somebody outside with an issue out there,” said McCarney, whose 2000 football team that did make history by beating the Panthers, 37-29, and will be honored at the No. 22 Cyclones’ home opener at 2:30 p.m. Saturday (Fox) at Jack Trice Stadium. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ (They) said, ‘Something’s going on, they’re out there arguing.’ I go, ‘Arguing about what? What the hell’s going on?’ Long story short, that suite was the suite Mike Tyson usually stays at.”
Uh-oh. Time to throw in the towel and seek a Plan B for lodging? Not for McCarney, who wouldn’t let anything disrupt his history-making team’s mission — not even a disgruntled world heavyweight boxing champion known for packing a walloping punch.
“Somebody said, ‘Mike Tyson’s out there,’” McCarney said. “I said, ‘Listen. I’ve gotta be honest with you. We waited 22 years to go to (another) bowl game, I don’t give a damn if Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson is out there, he’s not coming in. We’ve got this suite and we’re gonna stay here.”
McCarney and the Cyclones did stand firm and hotel staff apparently smoothed things over with Iron Mike. Of course, that had nothing to do with the historic bowl win to come, but it does illustrate why McCarneys team will be honored Saturday — ironically one season after current head coach Matt Campbell helped ISU (1-0, 1-0) make history again by winning a program-record 11 games.
“What that 2000 team was is what I think we continue to try to do here, is break barriers,” said Campbell, whose team is a 15.5-favorite against the FCS No. 5 Coyotes. “They were able to do that with the first bowl win.”
Suffice it to say, then, ISU’s fans will be in a festive and nostalgic mood fresh off a Big 12 rivalry win over Kansas State in Dublin, and with McCarney and dozens of his former players and coaches serving as honored guests. McCarney said about 180 people in total, including family and close friends, will be back in Ames this weekend as the Cyclones seek to avoid stumbling in a so-called “trap game” against transfer-heavy South Dakota, which reached the FCS playoff semifinals for the first time last season.
“I’m thrilled for my coaches and players and just real appreciative and respectful of Iowa State for bringing us back 25 years later,” McCarney said. “It’s amazing how time flies. But I found out in life a long time ago that things worth accomplishing are always gonna be difficult, and you can’t achieve great things without experiencing and handling adversity. We went through an awful lot of that, but that senior class, that team, did something that nobody had even done at Iowa State.”
The Cyclones have won five more bowl games since Sage Rosenfels, Reggie Hayward, Doug Densmore and many more standouts on that 2000 team pierced that pigskin ceiling a quarter of a century ago. McCarney’s 2004 team won the Independence Bowl, Paul Rhoads’ 2009 team won the Insight Bowl, and Campbell’s led ISU to three bowl wins in his nine-plus seasons at the helm, including a first New Year’s Six bowl win over Oregon in 2021.
It’s something he’ll never take for granted because it’s something that never happened until the 2000 team served as a beacon to postseason success. It’s also why Campbell will treat each game — whether against South Dakota or next week’s foe, Cy-Hawk rival Iowa — like the most important one ever.
And while Mike Tyson may not be standing in the way of the Cyclones’ lofty ambitions for the 2025 season, someone like him might as well be, because as Campbell often says, his team’s must always “climb the rough side of the mountain” to reach a sky-high summit, just like McCarney’s did.
“Without them, we wouldn’t be where we’re at today, for sure,” Campbell said.
Comments: robgray18@icloud.com